The following is posted by me (calgary411) on behalf of its author, JCDoubleTaxed:
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Most people do not have a twitter account. Twitter users tend to be politicians, press, opinion leaders, and celebrities. Joining Twitter will be a perfect New Year’s Resolution. It is easy and once accomplished you may enjoy the gratification of a resolution accomplished.
I shared the plan for this post with @wisecroneknows who commented:
“Just posting comments on IBS/FB isn’t screaming at the world to fix this…. they should not be frightened…. legislation is being drawn up now… shouldn’t wait for the inauguration. Even if they don’t actually tweet they can just simply like and RT. (AND…If I can do it anyone can).”
Twitter allows account names different from your real name. You might choose a Twitter name and profile picture related to highlighting the injustices of CBT and FATCA.
Twitter should be viewed as part of a range of means to communicate with politicians, press, opinion leaders and other US Persons overseas. Twitter is also useful for early notice on articles related to CBT so as to better get in early on comment sections.
On Twitter, hasthtag “#FATCA” is popular among Brockers. If you are new to Twitter you might search #FATCA to see what others are tweeting. People include hashtags when they want to send a tweet to a topic that others search for, such as #FATCA.
Addresses are included to send a tweet to particular people or groups. For example, a tweet with @SenWarren @RonWyden @SenSchumer will send the tweet to these three.
Some question if people really read tweets to them. Some politicians have staff manage their tweets for them. Some get so many tweets that “cut through” is a very slight possibility. So if one tweets @POTUS, for example, they may also include a hashtag or another address to increase the possibilities of getting noticed.
If you like what someone is tweeting then click on their address in a tweet and click follow. Their tweets will then show on your Twitter Home page. You might search a Twitter address for tweets to “retweet” (RT). Retweeting, or clicking on the arrows icon at the bottom of a tweet, is the same as sending the tweet from your account. Clicking on the heart icon or “liking” a tweet boosts the tweet further, as does both retweeting and liking other tweets and your own tweets. If two Twitter users follow each other they may send private messages to each other.
When others retweet or like a Tweet then this helps the tweets stay noticeable longer. Usually the more retweets and likes in the shortest time frame the better. Based on this information, we might create an amplified voice if we gathered at a particular day and time each week for tweeting about CBT injustices. How about:
each Wednesday @ 10 a.m., or earlier that day, (Ottawa/Washington D.C./ EST) from Wednesday 18 January. A program called TweetDeck may be used to schedule tweets.
If you search for a person or organisation then the first page that shows is the tweets, retweets, and likes by that person/organisation. Search again on that page and a “Top” tab and page appears of the most popular tweets to that person/organisation. The “Latest” tab and page is the most recent tweets to that person/organisation and those tweets with relatively fewer retweets/likes.
Good news is that for the hashtag #FATCA those in opposition to FATCA are crowding out the compliance organisations and those favouring FATCA. Usually the #FATCA “Top” page is full of tweets in opposition to FATCA and tweets against CBT that include “#FATCA.” Anyone wanting to use Twitter to do some research on #FATCA will mainly see tweets from US persons overseas in opposition to FATCA/CBT.
While Twitter only allows 140 characters there are a few tricks to expand on your message and give your tweet more impact. You may include in your tweet the URL of a news article and then such a tweet usually highlights a picture from that article and a snippet of what the article is about. Tweeting a jpg picture that you have added text to can amplify your message (I use the free software Gimp for that). An easier way is to use Word to type a message, and bold and enlarge it, then use a screen capture tool to draw a rectangle around your message and cut it into a jpg that may be attached to your tweet as a photo.
You may create your own collection of twitter images and urls of articles that you may tweet in future. You may click on a twitter image you like in a tweet and drag the picture to your desktop while holding down the mouse button.
More Brockers on Twitter and tweeting will mean greater highlighting of CBT injustices.
Don’t forget an important objective is to grow our community. Include urls of Isaac Brock Society posts, CitizenshipTaxation.ca posts, and related Facebook Groups in tweets and comments on articles.
Happy New Years!
@JCDoubleTaxed
Solomon Yue on message that should be focused on:
https://twitter.com/SolomonYue/status/828693533343166464
https://twitter.com/SolomonYue/status/828721581723574274
https://twitter.com/SolomonYue/status/828726697709051904
And this for sure!
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nigel-green-launches-campaign-to-repeal-obama-era-fatca-law-300403383.html
Twitter Rally Wednesday 8 February EST target addresses:
@RepKevinBrady @SpeakerRyan @RonWyden @RepLloydDoggett @OrrinHatch @POTUS @VP @Reince @RepRichardNeal @TillersonUSA @PeterRoskam @greta @60Minutes @FareedZakaria @FoxNewsSunday @MeetThePress
@smerconish
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2017/02/05/where-are-you-mainstream-media/
Hashtag: always use #FATCA
Others: #CBTax #taxreform
#RT
A few from today: Retweets/Likes Welcome:
https://twitter.com/zuludogm/status/829348314038415360
https://twitter.com/FedupUSExpat/status/829347870440554497
https://twitter.com/realTheresaMey/status/829353851174187009
https://twitter.com/FedupUSExpat/status/829342817319272448
https://twitter.com/zuludogm/status/829349824306769921
https://twitter.com/wisecroneknows/status/829392315517120513
https://twitter.com/zuludogm/status/829391849949388802
https://twitter.com/FedupUSExpat/status/829353233663430656
https://twitter.com/JCDoubleTaxed/status/829348063953219585
https://twitter.com/JCDoubleTaxed/status/829328950513934336
If this has already been done, my apologies for missing it.
This has a different focus than the current emphasis on getting the GOP to follow through with their promises. However, we can help our fellow accidental expats by promoting their website and encouraging people to take the survey there. It is available in French, Spanish and English.
https://american-accidental.com/
Although those who weren’t aware of their US citizenship could be the poster child for Accidental Americans, being an accidental American in my opinion includes those who were aware of their USness but unaware of the tax consequences of their status.
Re my effort to define “Accidental American” to include not only those who were unaware of their tax filing obligations. I left the US as a child. If I am to be taxed, I should have been duly informed of the responsibility of having to do so at the point where I confirmed my US citizenship after having left the US, that is when I applied for a US passport for the first time. Had I been informed, I would have likely NOT chosen not reaffirm my US citizenship, and therefore not forfeited the recognition of “accidental American” in the strict sense applied here.
Professor Allison Christians writes,
“The implications for citizenship-based taxation seem clear: it should not be the job of an individual to identify herself as a US Person for tax purposes by virtue of a citizenship conferred upon her. If, like Tina, she is not known to the United States to be a citizen because she has never sought that recognition, she should not be subjected to retroactive taxation and information reporting compliance obligations, to penalties, or to a fee to exit. Instead, she should be left alone. Without official recognition of her status as a citizen, the United States Embassy is not coming to her rescue, she receives no services, she has no right to entry, and she is not in any meaningful way a US Person.
Conversely, if she makes herself known by applying for recognition of that status, the United States may apply its extraordinary tax and information reporting obligations attending to that status, but only on a prospective basis, and only on condition that it meaningfully informs her of these obligations. Taxpayer education is key to proper and fair administration of the tax laws, and it is key to ensuring that individuals cooperate with the tax authority.82 When the tax jurisdiction is global, so too must be taxpayer education efforts.83”
https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=261087081122067112119070097095109071052087053042027060078070092126091088081027005022019114028045009056121072002115005102000026098080071048000105067081118020111011051008075106088101101067112105114024112084106078001103068125091126006004082011115006071&EXT=pdf
The plan for this week is fewer tweets, yet hoping to get more Retweets and Likes for the tweets that are. Some have been concerned of losing twitter followers with a barrage of tweets.
While we have a 10 a.m. Wednesday EST start, please sign in anytime Wednesday to retweet and Like favorable tweets with #FATCA. Also, in the afternoon. Search for #FATCA. Review the LATEST page.
T&T is voting on FATCA IGA on Thursday.
Thanks, JC.
@Tweeps
These are the members of the Tax Reform Sub-Committee of W&M
I quite remember Mr.Reichert’s letter to Shulman SOMEONE TO FOCUS ON
It seems they all are part of Grover Norquist’s 2012 Taxpayer Protection Pledge by the Americans for Tax Reform. I don’t know if that means anything now but given we have just made contact with Mr Norquist on this, we might push it a bit
Chairman Peter Roskam (IL) @PeterRoskam R
http://house.ontheissues.org/IL/Peter_Roskam.htm#Tax_Reform
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Roskam
Taxes
Roskam advocates making permanent the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts,[81] and has sponsored or cosponsored fourteen pieces of legislation for lower taxes, including child tax credits and reducing the income tax, and has stated support for a research and development tax credit. As an Illinois General Assembly legislator, Roskam authored and supported several pieces of tax reduction legislation.[82] Americans for Tax Reform named Roskam “Hero of the Taxpayer” in 2005 for his opposition to HB-755[83] which would have raised income and sales taxes by 67% or nearly $7 billion.[84]
In 2010 Roskam signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes.[85]
Dave Reichert (WA) @davereichert R
http://house.ontheissues.org/House/Dave_Reichert.htm#Tax_Reform
Reichert has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge by the Americans for Tax Reform, a group run by Grover Norquist.] The pledge commits the signer to oppose any legislation that raises taxes or eliminates tax deductions. On August 1, 2012, he also voted to extend the Bush tax cuts
https://reichert.house.gov/press-release/rep-reichert-demands-answers-fatca-implementation-irs-commissioner
https://reichert.house.gov/sites/reichert.house.gov/files/FATCA%20LetterFINAL.pdf
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/10/23/us-rep-dave-reichert-of-wa-state-posts-fatca-press-release-on-his-website/
Pat Tiberi (R-OH) (@PatTiberi)
http://house.ontheissues.org/House/Kristi_Noem.htm#Tax_Reform
George Holding (R-NC) R @RepHolding
http://house.ontheissues.org/NC/George_Holding.htm#Tax_Reform
Kenny Marchant (R-TX) @RepKenMarchant
http://house.ontheissues.org/TX/Kenny_Marchant.htm#Tax_Reform
Pat Meehan (R-PA) @RepMeehan
http://house.ontheissues.org/PA/Patrick_Meehan.htm#Tax_Reform
I’ve consolidated the twitter handles of the tax subcommittee members into a google sheet visible to anyone with the link below. If anyone wants to help expand the list (say to the rest of the Ways and Means and/or Senate Finance committees) – please let me know (there’s a button in google sheets to request edit access).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V2dySFSSVvo6KurpxSLWqh-39uyI0USGQ2FGa8h3GDw/edit?usp=sharing
@Trish
If it weren’t for the Bush tax cuts, Boris and I would have paid a lot more tax on the sale of our homes!
The Bush tax cuts “passed using controversial Congressional reconciliation procedures.[1]
The Bush tax cuts had sunset provisions that made them expire at the end of 2010, since otherwise they would fall under the Byrd Rule. Whether to renew the lowered rates, and how, became the subject of extended political debate, which was resolved during the presidency of Barack Obama by a two-year extension that was part of a larger tax and economic package, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. In 2012, during the fiscal cliff, the tax cuts were made permanent for single people earning less than $400,000 per year and couples making less than $450,000 per year, and eliminated for everyone else, under the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
Before the tax cuts, the highest marginal income tax rate was 39.6 percent. After the cuts, the highest rate was 35 percent. Once the cuts were eliminated for high income levels (single people making $400,000+ per year and couples making $450,000+ per year), the top income tax rate returned to 39.6 percent.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_tax_cuts
More on the reconciliation process here:
“Reconciliation is a legislative process of the United States Senate intended to allow consideration of a budget bill with debate limited to twenty hours under Senate rules.[1] Because of this limited debate, reconciliation bills are not subject to the filibuster in the Senate. Reconciliation also exists in the United States House of Representatives, but because the House regularly passes rules that constrain debate and amendments, the process has had a less significant impact on that body.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconciliation_(United_States_Congress)
This article explains the important relationship between Obamacare repeal and tax reform:
“Trump and Ryan agreed during the transition process to tackle health care first, partly for procedural reasons: With both health care and tax reform, Republicans planned to use a legislative tactic known as “budget reconciliation” that prevents Senate Democrats from blocking measures with a filibuster.
The budget resolution for the current fiscal year dictates that any reconciliation measure must reduce the deficit, which the GOP’s Obamacare repeal was designed to do. Republicans then could draft a new budget resolution for the upcoming fiscal year with easier deficit targets, allowing for more aggressive tax cuts.
Technically, tax reform passed through reconciliation still can’t add to the deficit. But there are ways for lawmakers to sidestep that rule, for instance by adopting alternative baselines.
The tax plan Trump proposed during the presidential campaign would balloon the deficit by trillions of dollars, according to forecasters at both the centrist Tax Policy Center and the conservative Tax Foundation. Both groups found that the biggest savings under that plan would go to the wealthiest taxpayers, with the top one percent of earners seeing a 10 to 20 percent boost in their income, while middle-income families would see more modest gains of 1 to 10 percent.”
http://www.npr.org/2017/03/25/521448581/what-failure-on-obamacare-repeal-means-for-tax-reform
@Bubblebustin
Been looking all over to find your comment to answer………..
thanks for explaining
will have to read this several times before it sinks in
@Trish
I still can’t fully wrap my mind around it either. Complicated indeed when it could be bypassed by such things as “alternative baselines”!
This kind of puts it more simply, “Reconciliation allows budget legislation to get through the Senate without a filibuster, giving Republicans an opportunity to get a bill through the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes. However, to fulfill reconciliation rules, legislation would have to directly impact federal government revenue and spending. Another key requirement for reconciliation is that a bill cannot increase the federal deficit outside of a ten-year window, i.e. the bill would have to be revenue-neutral after ten years. This was the reason why the Bush-era tax cuts, passed in 2001, expired after the ten-year window. Also, the Senate can do only one of these for every fiscal year budget.”
http://www.iris.xyz/alternatives/why-health-care-reform-critical-tax-reform
But it gets worse. If the Republicans can’t pass the Border Adjustment Tax then they lose $1.18T in revenue offsets. The BAT would have serious trade implications for Canada.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-26/nightmare-scenario-gop-funding-hole-much-2-trillion-bigger
UGH!
@Bubbles
I long for a simpler headspace. Seriously. Let’s go back to the beach. ;-P
Seriously, sister. I did spend the morning shovelling manure into my garden – a lovely diversion from all this madness, though not as nice as the beach.
“I did spend the morning shovelling manure”
Now you’re in big trouble. The IRS hates competition.
That’s funny, but it’s an insult to manure which provides life, sustenance and joy for human beings when used in our gardens.
Just got my account locked for “abusive tweets” in a Twitter war with an cranial-rectal inverted Homelander POS. 😀 Man, I’m doing good today. ~evil grin~ Twitter told me on their feedback if I would give them a defense as to why I was so abusive towards another Twitter user.
My response to Twitter: “I don’t care if my account is unlocked or stays locked. But I will defend my abusive tweets against an idiot who feels that Americans Abroad should be taxed on their world-wide income.”
@The Animal
Deplorable Debra is the quintessential homelander – exasperating to read her tweets!
I get the impression that she thinks taking another citizenship has the effect of “denouncing” US.
SMH.
@The Animal. You might just apologize to Twitter. I don’t want to lose your viewpoint.
I did not see your tweets as abusive. Twitter might discourage profanity.
Could we all lend a hand please to help our sister org Association des Américains Accidentels
Let’s Unite to Defeat FATCA!
The “Association of Américains Accidentels” (Accidental Americans Association) is a legally formed entity under the French law of 1901.
Its aim is to defend and protect Franco-American binationals against the nefarious effects of FATCA. The consequences of this Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) between France and the United States have been manyfold and tragic for binational citizens: French banks have refused to open accounts or have closed them, payments of inheritances have been suspended, insurance policies and mortgages have been cancelled among other bureaucratic hassles binationals have had to endure. This has resulted in feelings of great anxiety, anger as well as the feeling that French Authorities has abandoned them to their fate.
The Association has two goals: First, to seek legal opinions in French, European and International law to defeat FATCA in France or better yet in the European Union altogether and secondly to undertake the necessary judicial actions to exclude binationals from the FATCA IGA’s once and for all. Preliminary conversations with highly qualified lawyers have been promising and we think that there may be solid legal grounds to achieve this goal whether at the French or European Union level or both. But legal opinions by good lawyers are not free.
To this end we have started a fund raising drive and we need you.
In advance, many thanks for your help and Let’s Unite to Defeat FATCA!
Fabien Lehagre
Président de l’Association des Américains Accidentels (AAA)
https://www.leetchi.com/c/association-accidental-americans bit.ly/2rHThjL
Latest focus in on #taxreform hashtag.
Lately we have had top 10 out of 10 on TOP for that hashtag – just now 9 of top 10.
There is continued dominance of #FATCA hashtag.